Hey all, Iím having difficulty understanding the symptoms that suggest which stage an indivual is currently in. Iíve seen symptoms such as headaches having answers in both the Alarm Reaction and the Resistance stage, aswell as the development of illness occurring in the Resistance stage despite the textbook suggesting the stage of Exhaustion is when this occurs??Thanks everyone in advance!

Hey all, Iím having difficulty understanding the symptoms that suggest which stage an indivual is currently in. Iíve seen symptoms such as headaches having answers in both the Alarm Reaction and the Resistance stage, aswell as the development of illness occurring in the Resistance stage despite the textbook suggesting the stage of Exhaustion is when this occurs??Thanks everyone in advance!

According to Jacaranda, cortisol is released in the resistance stage, meaning you can get EARLY signs of illness (like a headache, colds etc.) during this stage since cortisol is taxing on your immune system. There are usually questions that ask what stage the person is in when they have a headache or cold and since that is relatively minor, it is the resistance stage. I have never heard of these early signs of illness in the Alarm Reaction stage, so I'm not sure why there are answers saying there are! When there is more severe illness, or the question says they have been dealing with the stressor for a long period of time like a couple of weeks, that hints it is the exhaustion stage. It would be a more severe illness, like heart problems.

In alarm you haven't really assessed the stressor yet, so you have things like the rate of blood being pumped around your body reducing - because that way if you get cut you'll have less blood loss.

Counteralarm you get FFF which counteracts that and energises you, ready to act in response to anything. As far as I know, there are no symptoms associated with this.

In resistance cortisol is having a significant impact. It frees up more energy stores for you to use but it also suppresses components of the immune system. So in this stage you become more susceptible to colds. You're effective against the stressor that prompted this, but not much else.

Overtime, this drains your biological and psychological resources. Once you hit exhaustion, not only are you vulnerable to other things making you sick, you lack the resources to continue standard functioning. You're not effective against anything.